Me and my team

Fashion designer Juliette Hogan and her team. From left to right: Lucy Slater, Lauren Gunn, Jo, Juliette Hogan, and Murray Bevan. Photo / Babiche Martens

Fashion designers may be the public face of their labels, but behind every great designer and ANZFW fashion show is a talented creative team. From hair and makeup to PRs to show producers to the all-important stylists, those working behind the scenes are often faceless, but this week's shows could not happen without them. We talk to three key designers about their teams.

Team Kate Sylvester

Kate Sylvester "is" Kate Sylvester, but there's a lot more to the brand than simply the designer herself. Tonight's highly anticipated Kate Sylvester show will be the culmination of months of work put in by a talented group that includes Lucy Vincent-Marr heading the hair team, M.A.C's Shirley Simpson for makeup and Katharine Broughton of Beat Communications looking after PR, sponsorship and show logistics.

There's also model and Kate Sylvester "muse" Avril Planqueel. "I just love her. We call her The Editor - whenever we can't decide on anything, be it clothes or models or music or anything, we turn to her and get her input," explains Sylvester.

Design assistant Christine Leung has been involved in the design process of the collection - called Diamond Dogs - from the beginning, and also manages the Kate Sylvester sample room, which includes machinist, pattern makers and interns. "She makes it all happen really; and she's amazing at it!"

Team Kate Sylvester is also made up of what Sylvester describes as the "tight three" - herself, creative director Wayne Conway and stylist Karen Inderbitzen-Waller. It's a very important trio - "we couldn't do a show without the core three".

Sylvester has been working with Inderbitzen-Waller for "about 10 years", in what could be described as one of the tightest designer/stylist relationships in the industry. "We wanted to try working with a stylist and somebody suggested her - I can't even think who because it was so far back in time. We met and I looked at her portfolio, and it started from there. She had barely started styling, and I'd never worked with a stylist before, so we just learned how to work together. It's evolved so much," explains Sylvester.

"It's quite a unique role in that she's not just a stylist who steps in at the end when everything's done and puts a few outfits together. She's always around; I always think it's really collaborative. She starts right from the beginning when I first come up with the concept and the initial ideas; I keep her in the loop right from the start," says Sylvester, who also designed Inderbitzen-Waller's wedding dress earlier this year. "The styling thing happens really organically between us. It's hard to see where I stop and she starts with some stuff."

The collaborative nature of their working relationship is similar to that of Sylvester's with partner and creative director Wayne Conway, who is also involved with collection concepts from the start. "Between the three of us, it's this constant theme-building process."

Conway, who has been involved with Sylvester's designs since she started Sister in 1993 (she launched the Kate Sylvester label in 1997), helps develop the concept around which each collection is based, producing campaigns, photo shoots, videos and runway shows. Sylvester's shows are known for their sets and theatrics, having involved everything from a serene waterfall background for the Stop Your Sobbing show for winter 2006 to broken crockery on the runway for the Brighton Rock 2000 collection to a stack of perspex chairs that acted as a postmodern throne for last year's Royally Screwed collection. "It's never just a straightforward catwalk presentation; and it's Wayne who creates that environment," says Sylvester. Conway also works on the show soundtrack and invitations, and designs the T-shirt prints as well. And while working so closely with your partner could prove frustrating for some couples, it's obvious that the pair simply love it. "We just work really well together; I can't imagine working any other way really," says Sylvester. "There's no way I could do it on my own. I think he's as much the brand as I am."

Team Juliette Hogan

Juliette Hogan is not your typical fashion designer. She's refreshingly candid, bakes cupcakes for her customers, and her team is tiny compared to that of other similarly established labels. Go to her workroom above her Ponsonby Rd boutique and most of the time you'll find that it's just her. But although Hogan's team is small - she has no design assistant and does all her pattern drafting and sample making herself - she does have a small group she relies on to help get her through Fashion Week.

"It's pretty insular. You do start questioning what you're doing and whether or not it's good; you go round and round in circles," explains Hogan.

Lucy Slater plays an important part in Hogan's team, helping produce and style lookbooks, styling yesterday's show, pulling together selling collateral and helping with artwork for the boutique. "She comes in and helps me and is like a fresh eye. She knows my business and she just gets it," says Hogan. "She knows what's going on in my head; she pulls it altogether." But more importantly, she's also a good friend. "A lot of the time Juliette's a one-man-band and I think most importantly I'm a ready ear down the phone-line when she needs to bounce some ideas around," says Slater. "[Being friends means] it can be hard to keep on task at times, but generally it means I can be a lot more honest with her - and it makes the work more enjoyable."

Hogan's parents Frank and Janet Hogan are also incredibly important to the label's success. "I couldn't do any of this without them; they put up with a whole lot of shit pre-Fashion Week, and a whole lot of self-doubt. Mum will ring three times a day just to make sure I'm getting on with it, or they'll drop food bundles off to me. They just say everything that you need parents to say when you're feeling emotional."

Murray Bevan is Hogan's full-time PR agent, and during Fashion Week looks after invitations, goody bags and making sure people are at the show. "He deals with all the media and 'cool people'. He makes sure that all the right people are there," explains Hogan.

Other members of the team include bFM's Charlotte Ryan who worked on show music, Lauren Gunn of Stephen Marr who designed the hair and M.A.C's Jo Roughan on makeup.

Hogan has worked with them all for the past three fashion weeks. "I really like having people I've worked with in the past - they know what I'm like, they know that I get a bit grumpy. I don't have to explain to people every season what it's about. They all just understand."

Team Cybele

From humble beginnings working alone in the back room of her house to a bustling workroom hidden above Karangahape Rd, Cybele Wiren has come a long way since launching her label six years ago. The almost unnervingly poised designer now employs a workroom team of five, collaborates with other artists and designers and is considered to be one of the industry's brightest stars. She's also Mum to 9-month-old Phebe, the most adorable member of the Cybele team.

Wiren opened NZ Fashion Week yesterday with a collection inspired by "Victorian dress codes, the photographic art of Sarah Moon and Yvonne Todd and the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and Virgina Woolf". The team behind that collection includes Wiren's design team, design/workroom assistant Gabrielle Muir, production manager Kate Roberts and sample machinist Jan Tiria - all of whom Wiren says are crucial to the success of the brand and fashion week shows. "They are all so important to the whole deal and with contributing to the show. They're all involved behind the scenes, creating the garments, making everything work, and then on the day of the show, everyone pitches in and gets quite involved. When it's show time, it's all hands on deck."

Abbie Fordham and Emma Hayes are other members of the Cybele workroom team, working on everything from sponsor relationships to event management. Hayes has worked with Wiren since 2005, in a role that has evolved over the years. "Emma's involved right from the beginning, in pretty much every aspect of the business, from design concepts to print design and the development of some of our accessories and bits and pieces." In the build up to Fashion Week, Hayes designs show tickets, helps with the logistical side of the show, and is in charge of the all-important seating plan, because "that's a huge job in itself", says Wiren.

Her extended Fashion Week team this year also included show producer Sarah Hough, Lucy Vincent Marr of Stephen Marr, M.A.C makeup artist Amber D, Tony Wehner who mixed the show soundtrack and glass artist Layla Walter who collaborated on the show accessories. Yesterday's show also involved a set realised by Dion Boothby. "He has years of experience with theatre, TV and film, and has just spent the last eight years in the UK working over there. He brings really great ideas and lots of experience. [Having a set] has a whole other set of challenges, so it's good to have someone with experience working on that."

Chris Lorimer has worked with Wiren since she launched Cybele in 2003, with a broad role that encompasses everything from PR to show production to the all-important task of styling. The pair are close - they previously had workrooms next door to each other and are in contact discussing ideas "all the time". "He's great. We both started our businesses around the same time, and our relationship has been a natural progression."

Of course it's not just the core Cybele team that helps pull together a Fashion Week show and collection. "There are so many more people who contribute in making the collection; the chain just goes right back, across the suppliers to all our other out-workers to people who dye things to the people who work around the clock to make samples at the last minute..."

"They are such an amazing team who are so good at what they do. They're all so talented, positive and hardworking. I really value that, and I really trust them as well."